Daily Humors

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Weird, Whacked and Useless Weapons Posted: 03 Aug 2009 06:03 AM PDT 1 Fart Bomb In 1994, the Wright Laboratory in Ohio wrote a memo that proposed some interesting weapons. On the list were several, er, special items: a flatulence bomb; a bomb that would cause the enemy to develop halitosis; and another bomb that would make all the men in an enemy unit become gay.  No word on whether the memo was written on April 1 -- we can only hope it was.  2 Bat Bomb No, this weapon didn't involve Batman. It was all about actual bats. It was supposed to be a low-tech way to end World War II.  The plan was to release bats armed with timed explosive devices over Japan. When daylight came and the sleepy bats were snugly nestled on buildings all over town, the bombs would explode. Ka-boom! No more building ... or bats, for that matter.  However, the detonation of atomic bombs over Nagasaki and Hiroshima ended the war before the bats could be deployed. 3 Soviet Doomsday Weapon In the movie Dr. Strangelove the world is annihilated, in part, because of a doomsday weapon created by the Soviets. The fictional weapon was rigged to destroy all life on Earth if the Soviet Union was ever nuked. The ultimate fail-safe, it couldn't be disarmed.  Sounds crazy, right?  The Soviets didn't seem to the think so. According to the book Doomsday Men and several papers on the subject by U.S. analysts, the Soviet Union actually built and activated a very similar weapon during the 1980s.  Oh, and as of 2007, there was no evidence that it has ever been disarmed.  Somebody get Slim Pickens on the phone!  4 SM-62 Snark Here's a tip: don't name a missile after something in a Lewis Carroll poem, it only leads to snark.  Back in the 1960s, before snark meant quippy and sarcastic, "Snark" was the name of an intercontinental cruise missile. It was designed to be about as large as a modern fighter jet. The Snark was outfitted with a turbojet engine, two rocket boosters and a complex guidance system. But even with all that, the Snark was a spectacular failure.  The missile crashed so often that the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Canaveral, where the missile was being tested, became known as "snark-infested waters." 5 Puckle's Defence Gun n 1718, James Puckle designed a gun that could fire 63 shots in seven minutes. Doesn't sound like much now, but that's a full three times as fast as a talented infantryman back in the day.  Puckle's gun is generally thought to be the first rapid-fire weapon ever made. Rapid-fire weapons led to machine guns and machine guns are an important part of today's warfare, right? So why is the Puckle gun on this list?  Well, Puckle promised that his gun could shoot round bullets to kill Christians and then kill Muslims with square bullets. He thought square bullets would hurt more. So much for turning the other cheek. 6 Puke Ray When the rules of engagement prohibit the use of deadly force, you've got to get creative when it comes to immobilizing your enemies. We get that, but control through vomit -- really? As it turns out, government-funded researchers are hard at work coming up with a flashlight-sized device that will make someone puke through the magic of flashing colored lights. Oddly enough, it's not the lights part of the equation that's complicated. The problem keeping the puke ray from being standard issue is one of size.  Scientists are having a hard time making the device suitably small.

Random Charts & Flowcharts to Make You Smile Posted: 03 Aug 2009 06:01 AM PDT

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